


it comes back to you in the end

by anniejumpcannon



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Young Avengers
Genre: Age Difference, Deaf Clint Barton, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Light Angst, Sexual Tension, That may or MAY NOT be resolved
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-26
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2018-04-11 06:28:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4424963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anniejumpcannon/pseuds/anniejumpcannon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint and Kate are totally platonic. Really! They are! They promise. </p><p>a.k.a. Kate has a crush, Clint is a fool, Tony is skeptical, and Billy is rolling with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based on and titled from the incredible Fraction Hawkeye, with input from the new(ish) Young Avengers run. This is my very first ever fanfiction attempt, so if you want more, please do let me know!
> 
> Rating may change as the story continues.

Okay, this looks bad.

Clint doesn't think he's ever seen Tony make that facial expression before. Could it be...shock? Clint quickly winds back the conversation. They were talking about his apartment, Tony asked him if he wanted to move into Sta- er, Avengers Tower with him, and he had turned down the offer because Kate sometimes needed a place to stay and besides, he owned the apartment building and he couldn't exactly pick up and leave, now could he? That all seemed like perfectly safe conversational territory to him, so why is Tony gaping at him like he'd kicked Lucky or insulted Pepper?

Oh. Oh shit. He hadn't just thought that sentence, apparently. He usually kept the internal monologue, well, internal, but apparently he had really just asked Tony, out loud for everyone and God to hear, if Clint had ever told him why he loved Kate Bishop. Clint scrambles to cover his tracks. “Uh, love like, you know, appreciate. Appreciate is totally a synonym for love, I mean, definitely. That is what I meant.”

Tony's look has shifted from horrified to appraising by now, so when he contents himself with an admittedly skeptical “mmhmm”, Clint counts it as a blessing. It's rare that Tony passes up an opportunity to tease someone, especially if that someone is an Avenger, and especially if the topic is their love life (or lack thereof, in Steve's case). So he shifts the conversation to the more neutral, and hilarious, topic of Steve's presumed chastity, and (yet another) crisis is averted.

\--

They're hanging out, getting breakfast (because breakfast is the best, obviously), and Kate is going on and on about freaking Clint Barton for the 350th time and then finally America says the thing they've all been thinking very loudly for a while now: “Princess, we get it, you're straight”.

Well, that's not quite how Billy would have put it.

Kate just sort of looks at America and it seems like she's going to avoid potential embarrassment and let the comment slide. Then David leaps in indignantly with “She can be in love with Clint and still not be straight! Bisexuality is a thing, people,” and Kate turns a colour that Billy is totally comfortable calling purple. Kate sputters a bit, but contents herself with an emphatic “We are just friends,” and a look that even more clearly says “mention this again and I will put an arrow in your spleen.” Everyone goes back to their pancakes, and Kate doesn't mention Clint for a while after that.

\--

Clint isn't totally sure when “she's pretty great” became “she's perfect” and “I like her” became “I love her”, but somehow, between fights with the Tracksuit Bros and target practice and Dog Cops marathons, his feelings sort of shifted. Which is fine! Because Clint is a responsible adult with a great deal of self-restraint, and he would never do anything to damage his friend/partnership with Kate or make her uncomfortable in any way.

So when she falls asleep on the couch and he tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear, it's just because he knows that waking up with hair in your mouth is disgusting and he is a very caring person. And if they end up cuddling on his couch a lot, that's totally fine because it is 100% platonic and if maybe he catches her staring at his abs when he takes his shirt off totally not deliberately in front of her, that doesn't mean anything because he is...a number of years older than her and why would someone so perfect ever be interested in a loser like him, anyway?

\--

Kate's telling him about that disaster of a mission where she impersonated Madam Masque in order to save Clint's ass. It's like a superhero romcom, the way they risk their lives to protect each other. Billy is swooning a bit, internally. He snaps back to the conversation real quick though when Kate tells him where Clint had that credit card stashed.

“You put your hand...? Whoa, kinky,” he says appreciatively, “things are heating up with the Hawkeyes. Have I told you how adorable it is that you guys call each other Hawkeye?” Kate shoots him a look that is stuck between Billy-induced fury and Clint-induced dreaminess.

“Look, Kate, you don't have to deny it, alright? Like fine, he is...wow he is a lot older than you, wow, alright, it's fine, I'm rolling with it ...anyway, I get that you guys are best friends and partners and it's all very platonic and all that crap, but you totally want to bang him. Admit it and this will be quicker and less painful for everyone.”

Kate's blushing in earnest now, and Kate Bishop does not blush, so Billy knows he's in the money. He reaches across the diner table and puts a finger over her lips before she can get back to denying the obvious. “Shhh. It's okay, he wants to bang you too.”

And okay, that was the wrong tack, because Kate has now gone from enraged to teary, and ohmygodohmygod Billy has really messed this one up badly and he will now have to renounce his stereotypical duties as gay best friend. “Kate, princess, what happened?”

“First of all,” she mutters with eyes that are damp but have not yet progressed to full-blown tears, thank God, “I cannot believe you just called me princess. That is my weirdly homoerotic thing with America, and I don't need you treading on it, okay? Secondly, uh, he told me he didn't want to bang me. Pretty clearly, actually, as in he literally told me that he doesn't want to sleep with me. On the phone. Definitely in this universe and definitely not in a dream.”

Wow. Clint Barton is even more of an idiot than Billy had previously suspected, which is really saying something.

\--

So everything is fine and great and G-rated, and then a mission runs late, like really late, and Kate gets back to his place and heads straight for the shower, which is fine because she has showered at his place before and he definitely did not spend any time thinking about her naked in the shower. But instead of being in the living room like he usually is when she gets out of the shower, he gets distracted standing in his room and staring at the discarded heap of Katie-Kate's clothes, which is a little creepy, even for him. Look, okay, Clint is just captivated by the fact that there's a hint of her perfume lingering in the room, and seriously how does she manage to smell amazing even after running around on rooftops for 6 straight hours in a catsuit?

And so there he is, standing there gaping at the floor, when the bathroom door opens and Kate is standing there in just a towel and then he's not gaping at the floor anymore, he's gaping at the way there's a strand of wet hair across her collarbone and the way droplets of water are running down her arms and how she looks so clean and beautiful and perfect, and then he snaps to and sidles out of the room. Sidles with great haste.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the lovely feedback on the first chapter. I hope this one doesn't disappoint due to its lack of plot advancement. I promise this is going somewhere!

Kate is on a mission, but Clint is not on a mission, so Clint is on his second pot of coffee and his thirteenth episode of Dog Cops. It feels like there there’s too much empty space on the couch, so even though Lucky was just outside in the rain and smells like…well, wet dog, Clint still pats the empty seat next to him and Lucky comes and drips all over him. “Good boy,” Clint says, and Lucky snorts like he’s laughing at the fact that Clint is drinking coffee straight from the pot.

And then the door slams open and Clint drops the coffee pot and he says “Aww, coffee,” and then he says “Aww, Katie-Kate,” because there’s a smear of red marring the purple of her suit and her face is white and then he’s on his feet and she’s in his arms.

Then she yells “It’s not mine, Clint, it’s okay, I’m okay,” right in his damn ear. “Jesus, Hawkeye, I have a hearing aid, you don’t need to shout,” he says, wincing and putting her down. “What happened? Whose blood? Are the boys okay?”

Kate snickers. “I love how you know America is perfectly fine. But yes, everybody is okay. This is…snake blood? I think? A lot of things happened. I got to use the boomerang arrow!”

“Told you to respect it,” Clint mutters. His heart is beating really quickly, both because, god, he thought she was hurt, and also because she’s still standing really close to him.

She peers around him to note that there is broken glass on the floor, a wet dog on the couch, and a pile of dirty dishes taller than she is in the kitchen. She thinks she can work with it. “Hey, Hawkeye, can we have a party here to celebrate none of us dying?”

That doesn’t make a lot of sense to him, but it’s not like Clint has ever really said no to Kate.

\--

“Okay, but why are we having our victory party in that literal shithole? You have such a fancy-ass apartment, rich girl. Also, why are we having a victory party at all? This was like the most routine mission in the history of ever. I didn’t even get to kick anyone!”

“America, I think you mean you didn’t _have_ to kick anyone,” Teddy says. “But I mean, good question otherwise. What’s with it, Kate?”

She pushes her pancakes around with her fork. One day, she is going to make them get real food when they hang out. Kate never thought she would say this, but it is possible to have too much breakfast. “Well, I just thought it would be nice to get the whole gang together, you know, to have everyone in one place in an alcohol-consuming context,” Kate says.

“And by that you mean it would be nice to have you and Clint in Clint’s place in an alcohol-consuming context, right princess?” America asks, courting death with a smile. Billy turns his snort into a cough because he is way too young and hot to die.

Kate’s jaw is set but there’s colour rising up her cheeks. “I will clean the apartment. You will invite everyone who should be invited. You will all show up on time and you will bring snacks. You will not make snarky comments, and I will not strangle you with your own entrails.”

Everyone snickers, everyone winces, and then everyone nods.

\--

“Oh my god, I don’t have anything to wear,” Kate moans pitifully. It is so hard being the only (sorta) straight woman on your superhero team, honestly. Who is she supposed to borrow clothes from? America? Yeah, if she wanted to wear a variation on the same shorts-and-flag-jacket outfit to every single event, no matter how formal, she would know who to call.

“Wear something purple, you know that gets Clint all riled up,” Billy shouts from across the room, where he’s texting Teddy, like literally always.

“If you are sexting him from my bed, I will puke,” Kate shouts back. “I don’t own anything purple that isn’t expressly designed for fighting people except for that one strapless gown he’s already seen!”

Billy hops off the bed and basically skips over to her closet. From the expression on his face, Kate honestly can’t tell whether he’s looking at her clothing or a dead animal.

“You have so much money! Buy some clothes!” he half-yells.

“Billy, can you be a pal and conjure something up for me? It won’t take a second, you have such a good eye for these things,” Kate pleads.

“Fine! You owe me forever if my generosity and good taste lead to you getting laid,” Billy says. Then he closes his eyes and gets to work.

\--

Clint is not totally sure how his apartment filled up with people this quickly. And God, they’re all so young! And God, he just looked up and saw Peter Parker on his ceiling and he thinks the shock took ten years off his life.

“What’s got you so jumpy, Hawkeye?” asks Katie-Kate, perfectly. “That weirdo pulls those stunts all the time, you’d think you’d get used to it.”

Kate should damn well know what’s got him so jumpy. How’s he supposed to focus on anything when she’s wearing this ridiculous slip of a dress that clings to every curve, a dress that just happens to be purple? And jesus, is that silk? Where did she get this thing? He has got to get a grip on himself.

“Hawkeye, are you drinking? That is against the law,” he smirks.

She pouts and crosses her arms over her chest, which only serves (Clint thinks, so loudly that he prays Steve Rogers can’t somehow hear him) to further emphasize her already impressive cleavage. “I am twenty years old, Hawkeye. Close enough. And besides, you’ve never seemed overly concerned with the law.”

And, you know, Clint doesn’t really have anything to say to that, because the lady has a point. So he just kinda looks at her, and she looks at him. And maybe his apartment isn’t that crowded after all, because it sure seems like they’re the only two people there.

And then Tommy shows up.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took forever, and I have no excuse but college (and lord knows that should suffice). Much love to everyone who stuck around long enough to see me through! WARNING: there is are two tiny glimmers of a sexual assault mention in this chapter. They are both super brief, and nothing actually happens (I swear!) but forewarned is forearmed.

Tommy is like if a tornado were a person, Clint thinks, and he doesn't mean it as a compliment. 

Somehow the guy is everywhere at once, flashes of white-blonde hair and attitude and roaming hands, but he keeps on coming back to Kate. It takes an extra effort on Clint's part, a little mental push-up, to refrain from appending a _his_ to her name, but he makes the effort because he respects her independence, god damn it, he loves her independence. 

So Clint doesn't call her  _his_ _Kate_ , and he doesn't bat away the arm that Tommy has draped around Kate's shoulders like he has the right to touch her, like it isn't a privilege you have to earn. He stands far enough away that he isn't part of the circle of Young Avengers, but he's still close enough to eavesdrop with the volume on his hearing aids turned all the way up despite the thumping bassline of whatever techno garbage Peter is playing. Billy and Teddy both have a hand in each other's back pockets like they're in some kind of coming of age romance, and he thinks he sees America crack half a smile at a particularly tasteless pun from David. It's sweet, and he'd be enjoying the scene if he could somehow stop seeing Tommy's fingers curl around Kate's waist, if he could stop watching her smile up at that stupid jerk with his stupid floppy hair. Clint isn't sure when 'noticing everything, sorta generally' became 'noticing everything about and around Katherine Elizabeth Bishop'. He wishes he could stop and he knows he can't. He cares about what's important. Can't blame him, right? 

\--

Kate Bishop is a bad person, and she's come to terms with it. So she lets Tommy kiss her on the cheek, and she leans into it when he wraps an overly-friendly hand around an overly-welcoming waist. Yeah, it's true that any interest Kate had in Tommy Shepherd evaporated at some point between his 18th and 30th unexplained disappearance, but he's still cute!  Her extremely casual flirting has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she sees Clint glaring balefully in Tommy's direction every time she glances in his direction, which is, let's face it, pretty freaking often. 

So Kate's flirting, and she's keeping an eye on Clint, and she's not totally following the thread of the conversation, so when Tommy curls his fingers around her wrist and tells the group that they're going to take a walk, her stomach does a little barrel roll of panic. Tommy's a good guy, the best guy, but sometimes he moves a little too fast and sometimes he doesn't listen, and now he's steering her all-too-quickly away from her friends, and even though she  _knows_ Tommy is respectful and caring and would never do  _anything_ , there's a familiar coil of panic rising in her throat. 

And then all of a sudden they're in a dark corner, and Tommy puts a hand on her cheek and his other hand on her waist and suddenly she's freaking out, for real.  So she leaps back, heart racing, and turns her head, but not before she sees the look of shock and guilt and confusion on Tommy's face. 

"Oh, Tommy, I'm sorry," she mumbles, ashamed, "I didn't realize, I'm sorry, I thought. We're just friends. You know that. I don't -" 

And he cuts her off there with a laugh and a smile and a nod of his head, just to let her know they're cool, because Tommy really is the best even if he's a little unreliable, and he moves to hug her, and then suddenly Clint is all up in his face. 

\-- 

Of course Clint sees Tommy pull Kate away from the crowd, sees her follow him and sees him step towards her and lay a hand on her face. Yeah, the boy's got a lot of nerve, and yeah, he's furious, but he doesn't even think about interfering until he sees the shocked way Kate jumps back, and then all of a sudden he's pushing people aside in order to get to her, blood boiling. 

"How dare you touch her," he shouts, face a centimetre from that bastard's, all spit and fire, "look how scared you made her, what the _fuck_ is your problem?" 

And then Kate is yanking him back, hand firm on his arm, and she's angry with him now even though he can't tell why, he was just trying to rescue her from this irresponsible, reckless jerk who thinks he can take whatever he wants, whenever he wants it. 

"Clint! Back off!" she yells, and now all the fear is gone and it's just irritation. "I can handle myself!" 

She smells like lavender and her hair is mussed and her eyes are sparkling and Clint is so angry he can barely breathe, angry at Tommy for overstepping his bounds and angry at Kate for acting like he's the one who did something wrong when he was just trying to  _help_. 

So then he yells what's effectively unthinkable, what he knows would cut deepest of all, especially right now when he knows she's worked so hard to be able to take care of herself, when she's made herself so strong that no one can ever hurt her again. 

 "No you  _can't_ handle yourself, Kate! You're just a kid!" 

Her face falls instantly, and then in a rush of purple and rage, she's gone. 

\--

He finds her sitting on the floor in his bedroom once he's kicked everyone else out, her jaw set in a way that suggests she could burst into tears at the slightest provocation.

"Aww, Katie," he says, "I thought you went home." 

"I am home, or at least I thought I was," she replies, spitting the words out as fast and as precisely as arrows. "I thought this was somewhere I was respected and safe and appreciated!" 

Clint tries to cut in, to tell her how much he respects her, how she scares him every damn day with how competent and efficient and talented she is, how he knows she could out-shoot him blindfolded and beat him six ways to Sunday even though he hates to admit it, but she's really yelling now, and he can't do anything but let it wash over him and wish he hadn't fucked everything up so bad. 

"I thought you knew how hard I worked to get here, how hard I work every day to keep up with a bunch of  _mutant superheroes_ , but you'll never think I belong, no matter how good of a shot I am, because you all think I'm just some little rich girl who can't take care of herself! I go out there and fight alongside and all the time you're standing there thinking I'm just some stupid kid, I'm twenty years old and you'll never see me as anything but a child no matter what I do!" 

He can't listen to this, he can't let her go on thinking he feels this way when it couldn't be farther from the truth, so he grabs her arm and pulls her close so she'll stop staring off into the corner of the room and fighting tears and actually look him in the face and believe him. 

"Kate Bishop, I know you can take care of yourself, and I don't think of you as a child!" he shouts, all up in her face and pumped full of adrenaline, heart racing from her proximity as much as his anger. 

"I don't believe you!" she yells back, something cold and hard and sad in her eyes, and Clint hates it so much and he can't stand to see her this hurt. 

So he mutters "then I'll prove it," and then his hands are in her hair and he's kissing her, frantic and hot and angry, because he's got everything to prove.


End file.
